The game focuses on street racing-oriented gameplay involving a selection of events and racing circuits found within the fictional city of Rockport, with the game's main story involving players taking on the role of a street racer who must compete against 15 of the city's most elite street racers to become the most wanted racer of the group, in the process seeking revenge against one of the groups who took their car and developing a feud with the city's police department.

Most Wanted brought in many notable improvements and additions over other entries in the series, its major highlight being more in-depth police pursuits. Certain editions of the game were also packaged with the ability for online multiplayer gaming. Upon its release, the game received positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success, selling 16 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best entries in the series as a result. Its success later led to a collector's edition, Black Edition, which provided additional content for the game.